Page 15 of His Tenth Dance

He glanced over to her. “Uh, of course not.” He grinned at her. “Who would do that?”

She laughed, and oh, Mission needed to hear that sound every day for the rest of his life. He backed out of her driveway and aimed the truck in the direction of the fondue restaurant.

“I was thinking we’d have dessert at the Summer Stroll,” he said, glancing over to her again. “Do you have something in mind you want?”

“If the Greek mini doughnuts are there, I’ll lose my mind.”

Mission reached for the magazine that had come in last week’s mail. “This lists all the booths. You could check.”

She took it from him and started to leaf through it. Mission wondered what Kristie “losing her mind” would look like, and he secretly hoped the Greek mini doughnut booth would be there.

Seemed like a strange thing for a festival, as doughnuts had to be fried at a certain temperature, and while Mission had never worked on a food truck, he knew that not all foods translated well to going mobile.

Doughnuts definitely fell into that category. But hey, he’d try them if Kristie vouched for them.

“Ooh,” she said. “They’ll have fried ice cream.”

“I’m sensing a type of dessert with you,” he said.

“I love all desserts,” Kristie said, closing the magazine. “The reason we couldn’t go out last night was because I had dessert night at my house.”

Mission expected her to look over to him, but she didn’t. She also didn’t go on. “You have dessert nights at your house?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Who’s invited to those?”

That got her to look over to him. He met her eye, his smile kicking up on one side. “I’m taking it not me.”

“I saved you some of my cheesecakes from last night.”

“Did you now?”

She nodded and looked back out the windshield. “They’re passionfruit with a coconut macaroon crust.”

“I didn’t know you baked,” he said.

“I took a cooking class a few years ago,” she said. “Now I do the dessert nights on the first Friday of every month with a few women from the class.”

“That’s fun,” he said, and he genuinely meant it.

“Lennie left you some ice cream, and Harper made me keep half the pan of cowboy brownies.”

“Lennie and Harper,” he said. “They sound like my kind of people.”

“Jocelyn made a princess cake, but she took the other half of it to her niece today.”

“I suppose I’ll allow it,” Mission teased. Talking to Kristie came easier than he’d anticipated, and he waited for her to name another friend. She didn’t, and he put on his blinker to turn onto Main Street.

“Just the four of you?” he asked. “Or were some people missing?”

“Just the four of us,” she said.

He nodded, continued down the block a bit, and then pulled into the parking lot at Meltology. “Doesn’t look too busy,” he said, wondering if he’d start commenting on the weather next.

Dear Lord, he prayed.I hope not. Surely we have more to talk about than dessert.

He found a parking spot and pulled in, still praying with all he had. Thankfully, Kristie waited for him to drop to the ground and hurry through the heat to open her door for her.

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